McHugh Reintroduces Postal-Reform Bill

House postal subcommittee chairman Rep. John McHugh (R-NY) last week reintroduced a bill to reform the U.S. Postal Service, saying that while he expects the measure to be fine tuned, he intends to move it quickly through the subcommittee.

Last year that panel approved the measure (HR-22) and sent it to its parent, the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, chaired by Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN). The bill died in committee with the expiration of the 105th Congress.

Last Thursday McHugh, acting for himself and Burton, reintroduced the measure at the opening session of the 106th Congress without comment. The bill was referred to Burton’s committee and the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL), for review.

“It is my intention to quickly move the bill through the subcommittee this year,” McHugh said in a statement. He has set Feb. 11 and March 3 for hearings and late March for a potential subcommittee markup of the bill.

That schedule coupled with Burton’s support could lead to action by the full House in late spring, according to Gene Del Polito, president of the Advertising Mail Marketing Association.

“If the postal service’s Board of Governors adopts the cooperative approach that Postmaster General [William J.] Henderson has been trying to foster, the bill could be before the Senate by the August recess,” Del Polito added. “Unless something drastic happens in the Senate, there’s a good chance that postal reform legislation could be signed into law by late fall.”

A source in the House postal subcommittee said that those expected to testify at the February hearing include Henderson; the leaders of postal worker unions and management associations; Ed Gleiman, chairman of the Postal Rate Commission; and Einar V. Dyhrkopp, chairman of the postal service’s Board of Governors.

The source also said that in March the panel expects to hear comments from the direct marketing industry as well as from postal service competitors United Parcel Service, Federal Express and the Mail Advertising Service Association (MASA), which represents direct marketing industry lettershops, printers, mailers and fulfillment operations.

In anticipation of those hearings, MASA chairman Michael D. Dzvonik has written various trade groups, asking them to help defeat two provisions of McHugh’s bill. One permits the USPS to create a private corporation to oversee its competitive products; the other allows the inclusion of advertising in special kits welcoming people who change their residences.

In his letter, Dzvonik argues that allowing the USPS to create a private company for its competitive products and services would “give the USPS the means and authority to get into any business it desires.” That, he said, would allow the service “to open lettershops, fulfillment warehouses, and list sales operation…or invest in catalog sales businesses, consumer and business publications.”